Page 58 of I Dreamt That You Loved Me

Tonight wasn’t going the way I’d hoped. At all.

While I couldn’t entirely blame him for being angry, I hadn’t expected him to be so overly dramatic.

The least he could have done was give me a simple yes or no instead of answering my question with another question.

“Okay, I get it,” I said with a nod. “I left you hanging, and you’re mad at me. But you know I had a good reas?—”

“No, youdon’tget it,” he said. “If yougotit, you’d be telling me that youwantit to be your business.”

Gabriel took a step closer. I took a step back.

“You’d tell me that you don’twantme to be with any other girl but you.”

Another step forward. Another step back.

“That you can’t stop thinking about me.”

He moved closer and we did this tango until my back hit the wall.

It felt familiar, like we’d been here before. But this time Gabriel was angry and there was obviously something wrong with me because his anger made me giddy. I was practically dancing a jig on the inside, that’s how happy it made me.

If he didn’t care, he would have just walked away.

He caged me in his arms and leaned in, his warm breath skating over my skin. “Are you playing games with my head, Cleo? Are you trying to fuck me up?”

“No.” I reached for him, but he clasped my wrists and pinned them to the wall above my head. Using one hand to hold them firmly in place, he trailed a finger down the side of my neck and over my collarbones, leaving a flurry of goose bumps in its wake.

“Do you know how many nights I’ve dreamt about you?”

I licked my lips, wetting them.Kiss me. “Tell me,” I breathed.

He grasped my chin and tilted my face up to his. “Are you done running?”

“I’m done. I’m not playing games.”

“No?” He kissed the corner of my mouth. The underside of my jaw. The hollow of my throat. Everywhere except my lips.

“Kiss me already,” I gritted out when he continued to tease me.

He laughed, the sound grating against my skin as his mouth hovered at the crook of my neck, just below my ear. “So impatient,” he said, sliding my hair aside and kissing me there. My breathing grew shallow and my stomach fluttered. “Mmm. You smell so good. Like violets and spring rain.”

“Maybe you should write a song about it,” I sassed.

His hands slid down my sides and he gripped my hips, yanking me flush against his body. “I’ve written half a dozen songs about you.”

“Oh?” My brows arched. “Was that ode to the orgasm for me too?”

“The ode towhat?” A laugh burst out of him. “If you’re referring to ‘Beauty Transcends,’ I wrote that song after a dream. It’s about spirituality and our never-ending search for meaning and purpose and that connection with something more powerful than us. But sure, let’s go with that. It’s about sex.”

I bit my lip. “So are we going to hang out here all night?”

“You have a problem with this wall?” He planted his palms on either side of me like he planned to hold me hostage for the rest of the night. “Because there are plenty of other walls to choose from.” His lips curled into a sexy smile.

I lifted my hand to his cheekbone and brushed my thumb over his full, sensuous lips. I wanted to sink my teeth into them.

He licked my thumb and grasped my hand, lightly biting the inside of my wrist. Shivers ran down my spine.

“I like this wall just fine but…” From the corner of my eye, I watched a few drunk guys stumble out of the bar next door, and suddenly all the sights and sounds of this very public spot encroached on our little love bubble. Ravers doused in glitterswept past. A taxi careened to a stop, tires screeching. Music blasted from an open window of a tricked-out Caddy.